Chronology of Indian Philosophy

c. 2500 - 1500 BCE: The Vedic sacrificial tradition, based on ritual actions, was brought into north-west India by the Aryans. This tradition was preserved and administered by the Brahmin priests.

c. 800-500 BCE: The teachings recorded in the early Upanishads, in which knowledge is said to be of ultimate importance, were embraced by the Brahmanical tradition.

By 500 BCE: these two branches - ritual and gnostic- of the Brahmanical tradition coexisted.

5th century BCE milieu: householders and renouncers; in polar contrast to the householders of the Brahmanical religion, were the renouncers - perpatetic, mendicant, and celibate wanderers, in search of knowledge about the world and the self. Renouncers rejected all Brahmanical norms.

c. 485-405 BCE: the lifetime of the Buddha. Texts record that the Buddha challenged Brahmanical practices and teachings, and their claims to authority, and found no satisfactory alternative among the teachings of the renouncers. Based on insights gained at his own Enlightenment, he taught a Middle Way between those of the householders and the renouncers.

4th - 2nd century BCE: grammarians and early exegetes establish what should be 'looked at', In the face of proliferating counter-claims to knowledge of the truth, if the brahmins were to retain their hold on their dominant position they needed to clarify the issues which both justified their practices and confirmed their authority. As the ancient guardians of the sacrificial ritual and the language of Sanskrit, they sought to establish the criteria by which their practices and concerns would be validated, not just for themselves but also to refute the claims of others. In so doing they set the agenda for what each school of thought needed to establish in support of its own position.

Key figures include:

4th century BCE: the grammarian Panini

3rd - 2nd century BCE:Katyayana and Patanjali , commentators on Panini's grammar.

2nd century BCE: Jaimini, author of the first known exegetical text on the ritual section - karma kanda - of the Veda.

2nd century BCE: Badarayana, author of the Brahma Sutra, an important exegetical text on the Upanishads - the jnana kanda of the Veda.

3rd - 2nd century BCE: Vaisesika and Nyaya combine an ontology of pluralistic realism and a formal method by which to arrive at certain knowledge. Kanada's Vaisesika Sutra - concerned with the ontological status of the 'particulars' (visesa) of reality. Kanada sought to establish of what 'particulars', or types of entity, the world is comprised.

c. 3rd century CE: Gotama's Nyaya Sutra - adopting Kanada's ontology of pluralistic realism. Nyaya was concerned with how one can arrive at certain knowledge of that realism - what are the valid means of knowledge? Its main contribution was an epistemological method, based on inferential reasoning.


4th - 1st century BCE: the early Buddhist tradition undergoes division into different schools. Initially based on different disciplinary codes, these gradually developed distinctively different doctrinal views.

3rd centry BCE - 2nd century CE: development of the Buddhist Abhidharma (in Pali Abhidharma) tradition: the scholastic activity of the investigation and categorizing of phenomena (dharmas/dhammas) in order to understand the nature of reality.

1st century BCE - 1st century CE: the emergence of Mahayana Buddhism and the early Prajnaparamita ('Perfection of Wisdom') Sutras.

c. 2nd century CE: drawing on Prajnaparamita literature, Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka Karika focus on the 'emptiness' (sunyata) of all phenomena, and establish the basis of the Madhyamaka (Middle Way) school of thought. Of central importance to Nagarjuna's teachings is the Buddha's doctrine of 'dependent origination'.

c. 4th Century CE: the Cittamatra ('Mind Only'), or Yogacara ('Practice of Yoga'), school of Buddhism establishes an alternative interpretation of the import of the Prajnaparamita teachings, seeking to redress the apparent nihilism of the 'emptiness' school. As suggested by the terms 'yoga' and 'mind', its approach centres on understanting meditative processes, or 'consciousness events'.

3rd century CE: The Yoga-Sutras represent what is known as 'Classical Yoga'. Said to have been written by one Patanjali, in fact their authorship is uncertain. The Yoga-Sutras present a detailed mental disciplinary methodology for attaining liberating insight, a methodology that is compatible with the ontology of Samkhya.

4th - 5th century CE: Isvarakrishna codifies classical Samkhya in his Samkha Karika. Human beings are bound to rebirth because they do not realize what they take to be conscious is unconscious, and that consciousness lies only in ontologically separate and inactive 'selves' (purusha). The aim is to gain insight into this dualism.

5th century CE: the grammarian Barthrhari develops an orthodox darshana alongside the philosophical activity of linguistic analysis. Understanding the role of language, he stated, leads to liberating knowledge of Brahman, the unifying essence of the universe.

7th century CE: the flowering of the Mimamsa tradition of exegesis of the karma kanda (action section) of the Vedas. Principal proponents include Kumarila and Prabhakara.

8th century CE: Shankara's school of Advaita Vedanta, based on a 'non dual' (advaita) exegesis of the Upanishads, 'the end of the Veda' and its jnana-kanda (knowledge section).

11th century CE: Ramanuja's Visistadvaita Vedanta, a 'qualified non-dualism', also based on exegesis of the Upanishads.


Reference:

Indian Philosophy a very short introduction

Religion and Science

This is to further expand on the topic of Religion and Science.

As I described in my earlier post on Origin of Religions, when religions originated it was the explanation for everything.

There are 4 categories of questions that Religion typically answers how did everything get created or come into existence, how human beings came into existence, what is proper or moral behavior and our goal in life, what happens after we die and how to achieve salvation or get rewarded in after life.

Here is common between all religions,

a) The existence of a supreme intelligence or higher power that has control over everything. Theravada Buddhism however doesn't believe in a God so it is sort of non-theist religion. Carvaka Philosophy also doesn't believe in a God.

b) The existence of a soul or an undying part within all human beings (all living organisms in case of Hindu and eastern cultures) which the essence of life.

c) An after life i.e. the concept of existence after we die. This can range from being reborn or achieving salvation as in case of Eastern cultures or existing in either heaven or hell as for western cultures.


1) To explain Creation every religion has a myth associated with how everything was created. Typically there would be a creator God that is eternal and ever present and with magical powers would be able to create everything.

2) Who we are: This is again an expansion to the creation story.

Western religion preaches that Adam the first human was created by God in His own image suggesting that God also looks human. Science teaches that we evolved from other animals namely simians or monkeys.

One of the Christian preachers who did not believe in Evolution actually said "It is not respectful towards God and human beings to say that we evolved from animals. Where is our self respect and dignity."

Hinduism has many creation stories. However there is humility as expressed in the Rig Vedic Nasadiya hymn which expresses doubt on how everything came into being, probably the one who existed at that time would know or probably He doesn't know either and there is a question mark at the end.


3) Our goal in life: Our goal is to pursue a life and live according to the traditions prescribed in the religious texts.

Judaism believes in following the ten commandments and the Jewish customs and rituals.
Christians believe that faith in Jesus as the Son of God is important to salvation and so forth.

Hindus believe in the pursuit of Moksha by following one of the 4 paths prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita or via meditation.

Now I turn to Science

Science has traditionally played a secondary role in life, with a practical point of view aiming to solve problems that are important. Western researchers prescribe that science originated in the west in the 16th century. However in reality science has been there all along, from the person who invented the wheel to the people who first started agriculture and invented the first tools, etc.

Science has always had this aim of making life better of human beings by solving problems.
It is only later that scientists started theorizing their principles and explaining things.

Unlike religious explanations which were typically done using miraculous events and using God or Gods as explanations, e.g. it was believed that it rained because of a God who controls it.
Human beings quest to control nature and the environment rather than the reverse created these explanations and also created a branch of people who would communicate with the divine beings via rituals to ensure that it rains or cure diseases, etc.


Science on the other hand uses real observations to explain things. In that respect science is humble, there are no preconceived notions and no agendas.

One of the biggest contradiction that science offered to the existing religious view is in creation and world view.

For e.g. Christians and Jews believe that God created the world in 7 days, 6000 years ago.

Science proved that the world was created much earlier and that human beings descended from ape-like creatures. In fact if you dissect a frog you find that the frog has the digestive system as humans. If you look at Chimpanzees the features look very human, the hands, the facial features, etc. This was in stark contrast to the Christian view that men were superior to animals and man is an image of God.

The second aspect science provides is that it questions rituals, such as a ritual to make it rain.

Science however cannot provide an explanation on how we should live our lives or the purpose of life. These are now the realm of philosophy.

Religion offered the entire package i.e. explanations, rituals, cultural traditions, purpose of life, social activity, etc. However it is based on the concept of God.

As science questions God, members of the scientific community declare themselves as atheists or non believers.

All science offers in the religious package are better explanations. However when it comes to cultural traditions or prescribing a path on how one should live one's life science has nothing to offer.

Western religions the religious explanation serves as a purpose for everything that one does. So for Christianity for e.g. it is important to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and in the original sin etc. Thus if you contradict any of these you are asking for a lot of resistance from the religious community.

Thus the greatest resistance to science has come from the western religion.


As I described earlier, Hinduism offers a similar humility that science has. The creation myths, the various mythological stories are not required to be true for a Hindu. The philosophies of the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita are reasonably abstract from science that it doesn't conflict with scientific explanations.

In fact the path of knowledge prescribed in the Bhagavad Gita is the one that true scientists such as Albert Einstein follow. So in that respect it only promotes scientific inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge.

So scientists everywhere, if you are looking to be atheist don't be, turn to Hinduism.

Origins of Judaism and Islam

Origin of Judaism and Islam:

Judaism and Islam originated in between the great civilizations of the east and the west.

Judaism is considered the first religion to promote monotheism. However this is not entirely true. The first person to promote the idea of monotheism was Akhenaten. Akhenaten; meaning Effective spirit of Aten, was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheistic worship of Aten.

The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became Judaism has been considered by various scholars. One of the first to mention this was Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his book Moses and Monotheism. Freud argued that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Freud argued that Akhenaten was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve.Following his book, the concept entered popular consciousness and serious research.

Akhenaten appears in history almost two-centuries prior to the first archaeological and written evidence for Judaism and Israelite culture is found in the Levant. Abundant visual imagery of the Aten disk was central to Atenism, which celebrated the natural world, while such imagery is not a feature of early Israelite culture, Although pottery found throughout Judea dated to the end of the 8th century BC has seals resembling a winged sun disk burned on their handles, presumedly thought to be the royal seal of the Judean Kingdom. Ahmed Osman has claimed that Akhenaten's maternal grandfather Yuya was the same person as the Biblical Joseph.

It is widely accepted that there are strong similarities between Akhenaten's Great Hymn to the Aten and the Biblical Psalm 104, though this form is found widespread in ancient Near Eastern hymnology both before and after the period and whether this implies a direct influence or a common literary convention remains in dispute.

In Moses and Monotheism, Freud contradicts the Biblical story of Moses with his own retelling of events claiming that Moses only led his close followers into freedom and that they subsequently killed Moses in rebellion either to his strong faith or to circumcision. Freud explains that years after the murder of Moses, the rebels formed a religion which promoted Moses as the Saviour of the Israelites. Freud said that the guilt from the murder of Moses is inherited through the generations; this guilt then drives the Jews to religion to make them feel better. Also the persecution of this Judaic sect by the polytheistic Egyptians and later on by the Romans may form the historical reason for the hatred towards idolators.

This essentially formed the basis of Judaism. Also after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians the community began to become spread to various kingdoms and other regions. Jews went to Rome, Persia and some even came to India. There was a need to keep the followers of Judaism together in a tight set of rules so they do not assimilate with the local population. Thus there was a need to identify themselves distinct from the rest of the population. Thus the Jews came to put together a historical timeline starting from the very first human Adam and his descendants. There were numerous stories ranging from Cain the first criminal to Noah who built the Ark, Abraham and so forth.

These stories were borrowed from the local myths of the different regions that the migrant population was dispersed such as Babylonian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek and even Indian myths and tales were converted and formed the basis of the religious education of the stories in the Torah or the Penta-teuch. (5 books.)

Also Judaism came about putting a rigorous set of rules for the Jews. The rules started with the ten commandments which were given from God Himself. Also God is very personal to the Jews since He saved their community from the terrible slavery in Egypt and so forth. The rules ranged from eating habits, praying habits, worshipping habits etc. Pork and shrimp was forbidden. Also the animals have to be slaughtered a certain way. A Jew may not worship any God other than Yahweh. There is observance of various religious days such as Sabbath on Saturday since God rested on that day, a Jew doesn't involve him/herself with any work on that day. The rules are extremely detail oriented. No wonder Jews were the first accountants who came up with the double entry book keeping. Thus Judaism was more of a religion for a migrant community to prevent assimilation with the local population. Also the identify of the community was very critical for the future survival. And mixing with the native community was expressly forbidden.

Islam on the other hand started out in a similar landscape but different conditions. Before Islam the middle east was placed in between the great civilizations of the east and the west. They were sort of a gateway between the east and the west. The activities involved selling slaves from Africa and other places to Romans and Persians to looting and robbing the traders who had to pass through their lands.

These communities who were essentially bands of various tribes who would frequently fight with each other as expected in a lawless land such as the middle east. Since they were located in the middle of the Silk route they might have been rich from looting the traders who passed through their lands. Also each tribe had a different idol or a God the tribe would worship and it also formed to be an identity for that tribe. They were ruthless warriors who would rape women, kill innocent people and steal from other people who happened to pass by their lands.

In the book, "Why I am not a Muslim", Ibn Warraq has described the origins of Islam. The ideas of Judaism and Christianity were well known from the traders who would pass by their lands but not very respected in these communities. Muhammad was one of these people, and he wanted to unite these tribes and prevent them from fighting with one another.

When the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, he declared himself as the prophet and the messenger of the final word of God, Allah. Koran did the following, first it established a uniform religion for these ruthless tribal communities, it gave them the list of rules to follow for their daily life like Judaism and it also provided the legal framework which the land originally lacked. Muhammad tried to unify with the earlier ideas of Judaism and Christianity by calling the Arabs as descendants of Abraham but the children of Ishmael whereas the Jews were the children of Israel. Christ is mentioned as a messiah and he expressly forbids associating any God like attributes such as son of God to Christ.
Some scholars state this as the reason why the initial part of the Quran that was revealed in Mecca has more positive tones but the later part of the Quran the one revealed in Medinah happens to be pessimistic. Initially Muhammad may have been optimistic about the acceptance of his religion by the Jews and Christians and the native tribes, but later on as his religion was not well accepted despite the stating that it was the word of God, and he was exiled to Medinah. He formed an army and marched into Mecca and converted all the people in the middle east to Islam.

The various tribal communities thus combined now had a common army and it spread further east all the way to India and west all the way to Spain.